Friday, 17 October 2008

Four short films made by Goldsmiths MA Screen Documentary students for Deptford.TV on Deptford’s black history. They look at the story of reggae sound systems in the area, the growth of the black community here, and the racist violence of the 1970s and 1980s, including the New Cross Fire. The films feature Les Back, Joan Anim-Addo, Lez Henry and others

5.30-8.00Talkoake on se14 6af: What will New Cross be?

Goldsmiths, University of London, is located in the heart of the dynamic and diverse neighbourhood of New Cross. The area is home to emerging creative businesses, deprived council estates and large numbers of students. How do these different communities interact?

A small row of terraced houses along New Cross Road, owned by Goldsmiths, hosts several much-loved local businesses – among them the wonderful Cafe Crema, the world-renowned Prangsta and Danse Macabre design and clothing outlets. New Cross is changing, with the development of parts of the Goldsmiths campus, new luxury residential developments, and the opening of several creative industry businesses. What is the future of New Cross?

As property portfolios are rationalised, it seems possible that the entire street will be swallowed up in a new development. What will happen to Crema and the creative culture it has helped to foster in the area?

On the 5th of November, you are invited to DeptfordTown Hall to air your views and envision possible futures at a public Talkaoke, an interactive audience-led talk show on the future of the area.

Talkaoke is is the spontaneous, global/local talk show where anyone can take a seat and air their views around the doughnut of chat. The format was created by The People Speak – a public art collective that develops 'tools for the world to take over itself'. The purpose of this event is to bring together as diverse a collection of interest groups as possible, and provide a safe and enjoyable format for them to challenge each other's perceptions and plans for the area in a constructive way.

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

A number of short films were made last year by the MA Screen Documentary students at Goldsmiths College for Lewisham '77. They can be seen on Deptford.TV's Broadcast Machine, here.//Twenty minute film:////////

Monday, 4 February 2008

John Lockwood was one of the speakers at our November 2007 Lewisham '77 commemorative event. He was active in the local anti-racist movement while a postgraduate student at Goldsmiths in the late 1970s. Here we print his personal reflections on the politics of the Battle of Lewisham.

The events of Lewisham were a great victory for the myriad forces of anti racism in Britain. This was an historic victory in the sense that it changed the balance of forces between the left / liberal masses and the fascist / racist alliance that had underpinned the N.F. project and in the end… changed the course of history.

On both sides of this divide there were “broad churches”. The hardcore nazis were, then as now, very few in number, perhaps a few hundred. They needed to deploy the tens of thousands of young, poor and disaffected white youth who, whilst being violently racist were not (or not yet) fully fledged fascists. Drawing on the teachings of their master, Adolf Hitler, they sought to deliver

"great demonstrations and mass rallies [through which] we instil in the minds of the little man that although he is a worm he is part of a mighty dragon."

On our side of the divide there was a broad alliance between socialists (revolutionary and other) and “small l” liberals. Broadly speaking the socialists, informed by the above rationale, and inspired by recent successes at Wood Lane, wanted to physically confront and, by force of numbers, prevent the nazi march.. The liberals wanted to avoid any confrontation and simply display their condemnation of racism and fascism.

Personally, I never doubted the anti-racist conviction of the liberal camp but between us there was a massive gulf. We believed that if we could win the majority of non-aligned anti-racists to our position, we could break the back of the National Front.If, however, we failed to win that argument and Lewisham had been just another in the long line of anti fascist skirmishes, then nothing would have been put in the way of the fastest growing political force in Europe.

It is perhaps ironic that the most vociferous voices in the “liberal” camp were those of the C.P.G.B [Communist Party of Great Britain] whilst others who might have been expected to be card carrying (small l) liberals defied expectations… At a key stage in the bitter debates within A.L.C.R.A.F., the Communist Party proposed (as an alternative to the counter demo) an anti-racist music and poetry event involving socialist folk songs and Christian hymns, humanist poetry and prayer… but it wasn’t the far left who demolished this idea. It was a priest who declared:

"prayers: what the hell is the point of that… we need to be in Clifton Rise [the N.F. assembly point]"

…although we are frequently accused of such manoeuvres, I swear he was not a Trotskyist entryist within the clergy.

A secondmajor contention dividing socialist and liberal ideas concerned the absolute right to free speech… many decent ant-racist people felt very troubled by the call to deny the streets to Nazis citing free speech rights. The events following the racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar in Southall (1976) illustrate the absurdity of this position.

Following this murder, N.F. chairman, John Kingsley Reed, declared

“that’s one down, one million to go”

…this incitement to mass murder was contrary to new race laws… He was charged and brought to court but rather than finding himself banged up he was told by the judge:

“I wish you well in your project”

…the judge didn’t clarify if the project in question was that of genocide.

After this fiasco the absolute right of free speech seemed indefensible. If John Kingsley Reed’s freedom to campaign for genocide is absolute. And if the right of black people to walk our streets unmolested is absolute. And if these two absolute freedoms are mutually exclusive then are we not entitled to pose the question: Which of these two freedoms is the higher freedom? No sane person could be troubled by this choice.

As history records, August 13 1977, was not just another in a long list of anti-fascist skirmishes, it was the day that the Nazis were dealt a blow from which they have never, to this day, recovered.

Welcome to Lewisham 77

On 13 August 1977, the far-right National Front attempted to march from New Cross to Lewisham in South East London. Local people and anti-racists from all over London and beyond mobilised to oppose them, and the NF were humiliated as their march was disrupted and banners seized.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the 'Battle of Lewisham' we held an event at Goldsmiths College in New Cross on Saturday 10th November 1977 with speakers and films.